Musical strings are tuned by changing their effective length or by changing the tension thereon or both. The change in the effective length produces a change known as harmonic tuning. The change in the tension results in a change in pitch. A string is mounted at or behind the bridge at the rear end and on or in connection with a tuning peg at the front or neck of the instrument. Turning the tuning peg tensions the string appropriately and produces the desired pitch. Placing a finger on the string between the mounting means at the ends changes the effective length of the string and, therefore, changes its frequency harmonically. The string may, in the firest instance, be initially tuned by turning the tuning peg at the neck to produce appropriate tension in order to obtain a desired pitch. Then, at the bridge, the string may be fine tuned to exactly the desired tension and pitch. The string may also be appropriately tuned with respect to harmonic tuning and therefore changing its effective length by an additional string engaging device at or near the bridge which accomplishes this purpose to effect harmonic tuning and is, of course, further harmonically tuned by the use of the fingers during playing in changing its effective length. It is convenient to describe the present invention with respect to a guitar, although the invention is applicable to other stringed instruments.
The principal components of the guitar are the body, the peg head, and the elongated nack which extends between the body and the peg head. The strings extend essentially in parallel spaced relation to one another between the bridge located on the body and the head of the guitar. It is also common to anchor a clamp to one end of a string on the body, usually at the bridge, but in certain instruments behind the bridge. The other end of the string is received on a tuning peg individual to the string located on the peg head which pulls the string to adjust its tension.
In many guitars, the connection points for each string include a nut located on the neck near the head and a second point located on the bridge of the guitar. To harmonically tune the guitar, these points are moved closer or further apart as required. Various means for obtaining adjustment with respect to pitch and adjustment with respect to harmonic tuning are described in associated applications referred to above. These various means are here briefly described in order to provide the appropriate setting for the present invention.
One of the essential elements of the present invention is the mounting of the string on the bridge in such a manner that the ability to adjust both the harmonic and pitch tuning of the string is retained. Essentially, the invention is directed to the structure of the string holding part of the guitar carried by the bridge. The tuning member is freely rotatable on the principal bridge saddle, hereinafter described. A holding groove receives a securing member of the bridge which has a strig fixing or attaching jaw and has a tightening screw running through it, the tightening screw being engageable not only into the tuning member but also with the string so that the end of the string is fixedly held at the jaw. One of the essential elements of the present invention is that the anchoring of the string at the bridge nevertheless permits full accessibility to the fine tuning structure.
Fine tuning structures are described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,497,236 to Rose which is more fully referred to in application Ser. No. 729,671 entitled "Fine Tuning Mechanism For Guitars and the Like Stringed Instruments", filed simultaneously herewith. The fine tuning mechanism disclosed and the particular bridge is also described in said application; so much of the bridge is here described as is necessary for a full understanding of the specific invention relating to the means for mounting the bridge end of the string.